The Dragin Prophecy
by Amerikus
Summary: Girl of the Griffin, head crowned in flame, Boy of the Serpent, bearing the Malfoy name, the spawn of the pair, a Hogwarts laster, to unite the houses, under one master. A Prophecy seen, to change Hogwarts. But are opposites too different to attract? DG
1. Prologue

This chapter has nothing to do with the fic that it preludes, it's just musings of one of the ideas, but in a different context. It is called a prologue. You will understand it better once you have read the entire fic through. Or should I say, if you read it through? Probably.  
  
For this chapter, I don't use any references from HP, so I'll say this.  
  
"I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me god?"  
  
The judge nods.  
  
"I don't own any whales, (surprisingly) nor do I own any copyright to the plastic bag. I don't own divers, or diving suits, or boats, or hott boat drivers. I don't own McDonalds, I don't own salads, (but I guess if I put the tomatoes and the cucumber and the Italian dressing with the lettuce in my refrigerator then I'd own a salad.) I don't own stilettos, or carpet slippers. I don't own Yin, and I don't own Yang."  
  
The judge smiles in acceptance. "You may proceed."  
  
A small whale slowly zigzagged over a coral reef, struggling to remove a plastic bag from its face. It knew what had left the bag there to drift, drift until it found something that would halt its movement. Men had left the bag there. The whale knew that if it didn't get the bag from off it's face, it would die. So it struggled in the water, its short fins, useless in this situation, simply lay limp against its sides. It eventually gave up and turned upside down, waiting to die.  
  
But what was this? Two she-men in diving suits! The whale noticed the divers and righted itself up, making desperate distress signals underwater.  
  
Help! It sang. Help me!   
  
But all the divers could hear was a high-pitched shriek. Alerted, though, to the whale's trauma, they turned and saw the whale. For a second, They looked straight into the whale's eyes, and even if they couldn't understand its plea for help, they saw the deepest emotion, the deepest sadness. And although, as simple women, they couldn't hope to comprehend what they saw, they saw the bag, heard the whale's frantic cries, and knew it needed help. They swam over, and pulled the bag from where it had snagged. The whale cooed its thanks, and with a flick of its tail, was off.  
  
After that incident, not only was the whale more careful to watch where it swam, it knew that one needed opposites for survival.  
  
If there were no littering men, there would be no one to clean up after them. And, in reverse, if there were no men to clean up after others, it would be unlikely that men would knowingly watch their litter fly away in the breeze.  
  
The whale simply thanked whatever was responsible for the divers going on a dive at that exact place, at that exact time.  
  
It didn't think that it would be so lucky next time around.  
  
But, for the whale, now was not the time for dwelling on such depressing matters. Now was a time for singing, dancing, underwater somersaults, and perhaps a female on the horizon.  
  
And yet, the divers up above, all thoughts of their heroic good deed forgotten in the face of the handsome charter boat driver, were pondering.  
  
They were not what you could call the prettiest women, nor the smartest, nor the ones that could grasp men with their charm. They were very ordinary ladies, of around thirty.  
  
But despite this, the boat driver seemed to have taken a shine to the women, one in particular, and had responded positively to her flirtatious behaviour. The other woman, annoyed at his actions, was sulking, but trying to hide it with a bubbly exterior. She was desperately trying to gain the man's attention.  
  
The woman being paid attention by the man was so different from him it was shocking that they even had conversation topics.  
  
The woman, although rather plain, was very bubbly and excited most of the time, and went out to clubs and bars with her girlfriends of a weekend, whereas the man, despite his beauty, was a late bloomer and was what some may call the 'ugly duckling' until his late teens. He did not have many friends, and rarely went out for non-necessities.  
  
It was highly amazing that they hit it off so well, because a person looking on from the sidelines would probably better match the sulking girl better with the man, as she had to be dragged out of the house when the bubbly girl wanted to go out clubbing or shoe shopping.  
  
And yet the perfect opposites found mutual attraction in each other, as the vicious sea predator will not harm the smaller creature that cleans it so well.  
  
Perhaps opposites are better together than beings that have less different qualities. Perhaps being with someone like oneself would grate against one's nerves. Perhaps opposite is needed to create a balance.  
  
Think having McDonalds one night, then spend the rest of the week eating meat and three veg.  
  
Think buying bone-crushing stilettos, then buying carpet slippers.  
  
Think Yin and Yang. 


	2. Fred and George's Room

They say that good things come to those who wait, such as how the hibernating bear waits all winter for spring to come, and finds new, possibly more pleasurable fish at the other end. But for Ginny Weasley, at home alone with Fred and George, waiting was terrible, and she most certainly didn't want to taste any new fish.  
  
They hadn't pulled any pranks or called her names all summer, and she was getting scared. What did they have up their sleeves? They mostly kept to their room, and when they were out for mealtimes, they whispered suspiciously and kept on giving her the strangest sideways glances.  
  
Admittedly, it was only two weeks into the summer holidays, and fresh from her fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she had been expecting more tricks from her two scoundrel brothers. Usually, there came the one they had adapted from a muggle version, where the first person to enter the door had ten kilograms of slimy squid tentacles dropped on their head. Then, they would offer round a bowl of toffees in brightly coloured wrappers, which, after the first time, where Percy, Ginny and even Mrs Weasley had grown long purple tongues, everyone learned not to touch them. Then came the endless array of booby traps. Trip wires on doorframes, unmeltable ice cubes in the part of the bed where your feet went, the list went on and on.  
  
But this summer was different. They had done nothing; they weren't even there when the rest of the family got home. Everyone else put it down to hard work at creating new gags for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, but Ginny felt that they were just building up to something big, something bigger than anything before. She wasn't quite sure what, but it worried her, all the same.  
  
Percy, after Cornelius Fudge's 'discovery' of Voldemort, had finally felt remorse for his words and actions and moved back in with his family. Mrs Weasley welcomed him back with extremely open arms and a lot of tears, Mr Weasley copied her, but with less tears. Ginny was glad to have her brother back, and as for Ron and the twins... they didn't reject him outright, but you could see it in their eyes that they weren't fully accepting of Percy's hasty apology.  
  
Bill had taken leave from the bank for the summer for his honeymoon with Fleur Delacour. They had been married the day after Ron and Ginny came home from Hogwarts. Fleur had looked nothing short of stunning in a silky white strapless dress, her long hair done up in such a way it made Ginny's eyes hurt if she stared at it too long. Ginny felt slightly underdressed in a black beaded tube top and matching skirt, but she had fun all the same.  
  
Mrs Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Ron and Percy had gone to Romania to visit Charlie for a few days, the main purpose being to pick him up and bring him home for the holidays.  
  
Ginny was pondering this, staring blankly ahead of her like a statue. She shook her head slightly, to clear her mind, and stood up. She was vaguely contemplating going up to check on Fred and George, when voices from the staircase cut into her thoughts like a knife. She crept closer to the door, not wanting to be discovered to be eavesdropping. She could only hear small parts of the conversation.  
  
"Everything, soaked?" This voice was Fred's. He sounded dubious.  
  
"Well... yes, but no. It will... but nothing will actually... You get it?"  
  
"So mum will be really, seriously angry, until we tell her that nothing..."  
  
"Exactly!"  
  
Ginny heard the sound of a high-five between the brothers, and footsteps gradually getting louder as they walked towards the door she had her ear pressed against. She gasped, moved quickly away from the door, then walked towards it as if she was just going that way anyway.  
  
"Hey Fred, George." Ginny said, desperately trying not to sound too falsely cheery, lest they figure out she had overheard them.  
  
"Hey, li'l Gin," Fred said, flicking her in the forehead as she passed. "Not long to go now before Charlie comes home."  
  
"Yeah," George said, a grin spreading across his face. "I think they'll love what we have in store for them..."  
  
Ginny smiled dubiously, and as soon as she was out of view of the twins, she bolted up the stairs and into their room. She hadn't been into Fred and George's room for quite some time, and she was knocked back by what she found.  
  
Dirty clothes lay littered all over the floor. Books were strewn everywhere, open, some with pale footprint indentations on them. The only remotely tidy place in the whole room was something of a workbench, over in the corner. It was covered in test tubes, jars and cauldrons, most with fluorescent liquids in them. There were two closed drawers under the desk.  
  
Ginny rushed over, but the drawers were locked. Knowing that she couldn't use the magic unlocking spell for fear of expulsion, she began searching for a key. She upturned mattresses, cleared away clothes. She finally found it, inside George's faded blue pillowcase.  
  
She went back over to the drawers and unlocked them with ease, pulling open the top drawer first. She rifled through it. Just boring facts and figures, and methods for making their gags. She closed it. She hadn't found what she was looking for.  
  
But what was she looking for? I don't know, she thought, but I know I want to find out what those two are up to.  
  
Just as she opened the bottom drawer, she heard the door click shut behind her. She froze, then slowly turned her head around to see Fred standing in the door, closely followed by George.  
  
"Well, little sister," Fred said menacingly. "Do you know what the penalty is for rifling through George and I's secret documents?"  
  
Ginny winced. "No." She said, perhaps with a little too much humour.  
  
"It is no laughing matter, youngling," George said, going cross-eyed. "I am afraid we shall have to... kill you."

  
  
Well, that's the end of another chapter, hopefully more having something to do with the story than chapter one. The prologue. Thanks to the 2 reviewers...  
  
Vix17: Thanks for reviewing, here's the next chapter, 1 day after the last update. In case you hadn't noticed. (Heheh)  
  
Dracolovesginny: well, anxiously await no longer, here's chapter 2. Thanks for reviewing! 


	3. Tidal Wave

Chapter of the season. Not really. Just some chapter three.  
  
Emaleth84: Thanks for the review, I'm trying to update as soon as possible.  
  
Georgethegreen: Thanks for reviewing, but I've never read it, so I'm not sure if you were complimenting or criticising...  
  
Ash night: Thanks for reviewing, Ginny's a curious little monkey. But what kind of a D/G fic would this be if Ginny died in chapter three, with no mention of Draco yet? That's just thilly. I'll be sure to have a lovely day, especially since I probably only have about 5 waking hours left in the day =) =) =)  
  
"That's not funny." Ginny said seriously.  
  
"That is good, it was not supposed to imply humour." Fred said in a very queer, excessively British accent.  
  
"This is stupid, I'm leaving," Ginny said, walking towards the door, but Fred and George held out their arms to stop her from exiting. "Let me go through."  
  
George opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the loud banging noise of the door being thrown open. Their heads spun toward the scene of the noise.  
  
"Fred... George... Gin?" Came the voice of their mother calling them from downstairs. Fred waggled a finger dangerously at Ginny.  
  
"Next time, little one, next time... in the meanwhile, we have a prank to pull."  
  
Fred and George clapped their hands simultaneously. There was a dull thundering sound from the top of the house, and a droplet of something wet fell onto Ginny's shoulder.  
  
Then the water came. A massive torrent of pale blue liquid floored down the stairs, knocking the three flying as it continued on its path toward the living room. They were submerged in the stuff. Ginny glared angrily at the twins underwater, who grinned manically and gave her a violent thumbs up. Ginny was holding her breath, but her poor lungs could only hold so much air when she had but a fraction of a second to suck enough in before she was underwater. Her head was swimming; every muscle in her body yearned for oxygen, she thought she was about to die. She finally gave in to what her aching body was telling her, she gasped in the water.  
  
Except it wasn't water. It was air.  
  
'What?' She thought, confusedly. 'Since when is there air underwater?'  
  
She drew her hands up to her face and stared at them. There was a kind of rim around them, about an inch where there was no water. She looked down at herself. There was a sort of coating around her whole body, like a space suit an inch thick. She sucked in the air encompassing her appreciatively and grinned. She tried to kick her way to the surface, but it was as if there was a covering on the surface. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get her head above the water. She swam downstairs angrily and pushed open the living room door, which, she noticed, also had an air coating.  
  
She saw her mother trying not to float away as she yelled at Fred and George, who were grinning ear to ear. She saw Ron, doing somersaults, obviously enjoying himself immensely. She saw Percy, trying desperately to look stern when Fred and George had deliberately left out some of the air pocket on his pants, so it looked as if he had wet himself. She saw Mr. Weasley, looking around vaguely. She saw Charlie, watching Mrs. Weasley work herself up. But there was a girl floating with Charlie, looking embarrassed to be present when Mrs. Weasley was yelling. Ginny had never seen this girl before. She had a foreign look about her; her short brown hair tied back in a ponytail.  
  
"Flooding the house! You wait until this wears off... It does wear off, right?" Mrs Weasley trailed off, looking apprehensive at the couch.  
  
"Don't worry, mum." Fred said, then George chimed in.  
  
"It should have drained off in about twenty minutes," George said. "Don't worry, the floor, walls, and furniture are safe from water damage."  
  
Mrs. Weasley looked relieved. "That's... good. Now you go, uh... de-gnome the garden!"  
  
"Did that already, mum, you made us do that when you found out me and George filled Snape's store room with dung beetles."  
  
"Well... do something productive, and don't stop until dinnertime!"  
  
"Will do, mother dearest!" Fred said, glancing at his watch. Ginny followed the example and looked at hers. It was 5pm. Only another hour until dinner. She grinned and swam over to Ron, who had tired of his underwater acrobatics and was now floating aimlessly around.  
  
"Harry and Hermione staying this summer?" She asked. Although her brothers kept her company, she needed a girl friend to chat to, as you couldn't well ask Fred or George what they thought of the boy in Ravenclaw who she liked. Desperate for someone to talk to, she had asked Percy that, and he looked scandalised.  
  
"What year is he in?" He demanded.  
  
"Uh... he just came out of sixth year."  
  
"Too old for you. You're only eleven."  
  
"I'm fifteen, Percy." She had answered lazily. She was used to this kind of age-muddle.  
  
"No!" He had said forcefully. "You'll always be eleven!"  
  
At which point, Ginny had sighed and left the room. She had no need for Percy's kind of disposition. This was why she needed for Hermione to be here, someone who was not part of her school posse, who wouldn't judge her, wouldn't look down on her for being younger, she would just listen.  
  
"Yeah, they're coming a week from Sunday." Ron said, going back to his acrobatics. After a near miss between his foot and her head, she drifted off towards Percy.  
  
"Percy, really, you should learn to use the toilet."  
  
Percy's ears went beet red and stiffened noticeably. "Ginny, I don't think it's wise for a young, impressionable girl like you to be cavorting around, heightening Fred and George's pranks like this."  
  
"Oh, don't worry," She said, trying to sound carefree, "The humour of those pants cannot possibly be heightened any further."  
  
The colour in Percy's ears travelled down to the rest of his face like a disease, turning him the colour of a traffic light.  
  
"Don't you have somewhere to be?"  
  
"No." She said, but decided against tormenting him anymore. He had been rather touchy and easy to offend since he came home, and he might take her teasing the wrong way. She flipped over to Charlie and the girl, grinning.  
  
"Hi Charlie!" She said, smiling at them both. "How's things?"  
  
"Oh, ok," He said. "This is Zoe, she's... well, I'll tell you more when this water dries up."  
  
Ginny grinned at Zoe, who smiled cautiously back. She was not ically beautiful, but she had a friendly aura about her that made Ginny start to like her immediately.  
  
"Hi." She said. She felt her toes touch the floor, and realised that the water was drying up sooner than Fred and George had said. Pretty soon, her head was above the water, and the family (minus Fred and George) walked into the kitchen, the water now just below Ginny's chest.  
  
"Hello, Ginny, how was your time with those dratted boys?" Mrs. Weasley asked her as she entered.  
  
"Alright." Ginny mumbled. Now that she was out from underwater, she was shy and unwilling to draw attention to herself in front of a stranger.  
  
"Dear, you must introduce Zoe properly." Mrs. Weasley said warmly to Charlie, who cleared his throat.  
  
"Well, ah, I was in Russia, with dragons, you know, and Zoe had just started, and so she needed a bit of help, and so we're... pretty good friends now." He ended, rather lamely.  
  
"Very nice, very nice." Mrs. Weasley said. "Zoe will be staying with us until she goes back to Russia with Charlie."  
  
Ginny nodded. "Yeah." The water was at her waist now, and rapidly draining off. She vaguely thought of going upstairs to get away from the water, but when she got to the stairs, she found that the water continued at a constant height up the stairs, staying the same level on the floor above. She sighed.  
  
"Gin, can you please show Zoe her room?" Mrs. Weasley said. "She'll be staying in your room with you and Hermione."  
  
"Alright mum," She said, leading Zoe up the stairs. "So, are you and Charlie... you know, an item?"  
  
Zoe laughed. "I doubt your mother would let me stay here if we were. I wouldn't if I were her."  
  
"Ah." Ginny said, stuck for something to say. Zoe spoke fluent English but had a pronounced Russian accent.  
  
"I mean, he's a great guy, lots of fun to be around, and absolutely great with those big dragons, but... yeah. I guess it sounds kind of weird to hear someone talking about your brother like this."  
  
"Oh, not at all." Said Ginny. "It's better than listening to Fred and George plot against the family."  
  
"They what?" Zoe asked. "That's very scary!"  
  
"Oh, no really bad stuff, just pranks and stuff. Like that water thing. I didn't know I had air around me until I almost went unconscious, I eventually had to breathe."  
  
"Yes, I was very surprised... well... surprised isn't the word... more scared out of my wits when I saw a near tidal wave coming towards me."  
  
Ginny laughed, and dragged Zoe's bag into her room.  
  
"I hope we can be good friends, Ginny." Zoe said. "Perhaps we can go shopping sometime?"  
  
"Why would we want to do that?" Ginny asked, confused. "Mum takes me shopping for school stuff."  
  
"Oh... I'm muggle born. It's like, going to a muggle shopping place, and just... buying things. Like clothes, or makeup, or things like that. It's like, how girls bond. If that makes any sense."  
  
"I don't really get it, but it sounds interesting. I'd like that."  
  
There you have it! I hope I kept the canon characters... well, in character. And as for Zoe, I'm trying desperately not to make her a MarySue. She won't be the main character, don't worry. 


	4. Hermione at The Burrow

Hello! I have no idea what shops they have over in England, and my modem's screwed up at the moment, so I can't like, do research or anything. So I'll just use the shops I like from Australia. Don't get too mad at me!

-----

It was Saturday, the day before The Weasley's were due to pick up Harry and Hermione from their homes. Fred and George were plotting in their rooms as usual, and Percy and Charlie had gone out to watch a local Quidditch game. This was also the day for Zoe and Ginny to do some Female Bonding and go shopping together.  
  
Ginny was in her room, brushing rose blush onto her cheeks. Zoe entered and grinned, but it quickly faded when she saw the colour Ginny was applying.  
  
"Ginny, do you have any sisters?" She asked. Ginny shook her head perplexedly. "Any older girl friend who wears makeup?"  
  
"No...?"  
  
"Listen, _please_ don't take this the wrong way, but it looks to me like you're putting on the wrong colours for your skin tone and hair colour."  
  
Ginny went red. "Well, it's not like anyone's been up to show me."  
  
"Yeah. Hey, what's say I show you?"  
  
Ginny smiled half-heartedly. "If you like."  
  
"Ah-k." She said, waving her hand over the desk top, making the bottles and tubs disappear. She waved her arm over it again and a new collection of cosmetics appeared on Ginny's desk.  
  
"Now." She said, smearing a pale foundation onto Ginny's skin. "You don't want it too dark. You'll look like this girl I knew who is completely stupid, wears foundation about ten times too dark, eyeliner really thick and she has this really, really ugly boyfriend."  
  
"We wouldn't want that," Ginny said as a neutral eyeshadow was put on her. "The last thing we'd want is a really, really ugly boyfriend."  
  
"I completely agree." Zoe said, missing the sarcasm, and put a mirror in front of Ginny.  
  
Ginny looked at her reflection and was speechless. Zoe had done a great job. Often, she had looked in the mirror and fought the temptation to burst into tears. But today, today was the first time she had seen herself and liked what she saw. She was beautiful, for the first time.  
  
"I'm... beautiful." She mumbled under her breath. "Thank you Zoe."  
  
"We could do something about that hair." She said, then seeing the look on Ginny's face; "Oh, not like that. I mean... it's very normal."  
  
Ginny flicked the ends of her red hair. "If you say so."  
  
Zoe picked up a pair of scissors, then put them down again. "Too slow." Then she passed her hand over Ginny's hair. Suddenly, it was layered, and in corkscrew curls.  
  
"Oh, that's lovely, thank you," Ginny said, looking at her new hair. Zoe grinned and pulled her up.  
  
"I know you'd love to check yourself out all day, but we have shopping to do."  
  
"Yes, checking myself out is very tempting..." Ginny said sarcastically. "Let's go."  
  
She pulled a bakerboy's cap over her new curls and went out the door. She didn't have much muggle clothes, so she was looking forward to the day ahead. Zoe tossed over a purse.  
  
"My gift to you. Happy birthday."  
  
"But my birthday's in October," Ginny said, opening the purse. Inside, there was a roll of muggle money. "What on earth is with these little bits of paper..."  
  
"It's two hundred pounds," Zoe said. "I imagine you don't have much muggle gear."  
  
"No, I don't," Ginny said, trying to figure out the notes. "Is two hundred a lot?"  
  
"I think it's about five or ten pounds to the galleon."  
  
Ginny's jaw dropped. "That is a lot." She said. "I – I can't accept this."  
  
She tried to hand it back to Zoe, but she refused it. "Then what will you shop with, huh?" Zoe grinned. "Sheer willpower?"  
  
Ginny shrugged and stopped trying to get rid of the money. She wouldn't win.  
  
Their first stop, once they got into London, was Suprè. Ginny walked in, apprehensive, and looked shocked when Zoe practically had a seizure over a red tartan skirt.  
  
They had a lot of fun trying one the clothes in the store, even if they didn't buy half of them. Zoe ended up walking out of the shop with the red skirt, and a pink t-shirt with a large British flag on it. Ginny had a field day in there and bought a Chocoholic's Anonymous t-shirt, a low-cut black dressy top, and two new pairs of pants. One was very tight and sandblasted denim, the other was a pair of baggy whites.  
  
"You're so good with... style, Zoe." Ginny said as they left. "I bet you have a million friends back home."  
  
Zoe's eyes dropped. "Well, actually, I don't have that many. Girls never liked me when I was at school, so I mostly hung out with boys. Then they got older and sex-crazy, and I really didn't like being around people talking about girls in the way that they did. So I guess I was just a loner, unliked by girls, unliked by boys."  
  
"Oh," Ginny said, embarrassed to have asked such a personal question. "That's a bit of a predicament."  
  
"Mmm." Zoe said. Then she turned her head and looked into Just Jeans. "Ooh look, they have red sevens!" She said, pointing to a pair of jeans hanging on a rack. "We have to buy some!"

-----  
  
Ginny and Zoe caught the knight bus home that afternoon, pockets lighter but hands fuller than when they had left. They walked in the front door and were greeted by Mrs. Weasley's smiling face.  
  
"Good, you're back... did you have fun?" She said absently whilst magicking a knife to chop potatoes for her.  
  
"Yeah mum, look at all this stuff I got!" Ginny said showing her mother her purchases.  
  
"That's lovely dear... now can you get the house ready for Harry and Hermione tomorrow – oh look, here comes Hermione now!"  
  
Hermione Granger walked in, hair just as bushy as ever, grinning broadly.  
  
"Hello Ginny, Mrs. Weasley... sorry I'm early, but Mum and Dad had to go to a dentists' conference tomorrow and today was the only time they could drop me off."  
  
"Oh, that's quite alright, dear," Mrs Weasley said. "Ron's upstairs. Ginny, Zoe, can you take her up there?"  
  
"Thanks Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said as she was led away to Ron's room. "Is Zoe one of your friends, Ginny?"  
  
"Kinda," Ginny said, as Charlie called Zoe back downstairs. "She's really Charlie's friend, but we hang out a lot."  
  
They walked into Ron's room and saw him lying on his bed, reading. It was a big surprise to see him doing anything to do with a book, since he spent most of his time at Hogwarts daydreaming. But then Hermione solved the puzzle by pulling his reading material out of his hands and showing the copy of 'Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle' comic to the other girls.  
  
Expressions of comprehension dawned on their once confused faces, and Hermione grinned. Ron, apparently, had not noticed the absence of his comic, and kept on flicking his eyes from one hand to the other, as if there was still something there to read. Finally, he realised that his comic had mysteriously disappeared, and he shot up in bed, pulling his hands up into the defensive karate movement, one behind the other. Hermione flapped the comic in his face and laughed, putting it down on his Chudley Cannons bedspread.  
  
"_Hermiiiiiiioneeeeee_..." he whined, stomping his fists onto his bed like a child, "I was _reeeeaaading thaaaaaaaaaaat_..."  
  
"Ah, quit ya whining." Hermione said, flicking him in the centre of the forehead. The flick seemed to unsettle him, and he looked up at Hermione confusedly.  
  
"HERMIONE!" He screeched. Hermione flinched and put her hands up, not knowing what to expect. Ron had never done this kind of thing before.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're here!"  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes. How could boys be so ignorant? Even for Ron, this was extreme.  
  
"No, Ron, I'm a hologram."  
  
"A what-a-gram?" Ron said.

'Oh, blast,' Hermione thought, 'he doesn't know...'  
  
"It's what muggles use sometimes. It makes something look like it's there but it really isn't. It projects an image onto thin air, or it's something on a flat piece of paper that's been made to look three dimensional."  
  
Ron still looked confused. "What?"  
  
"Oh, never mind, do Muggle Studies, you'll find out."  
  
Ron looked positively bored with the subject, but was too polite, or perhaps too afraid of what Hermione might do, to say anything. He simply smiled weakly and declined.  
  
"Ah... I'm sure I'll do Muggle Studies... sometime..."  
  
"Great! We can study together or something... do you know there's no other Gryffindors doing it except Seamus, Dean and me?"  
  
"Oh bloody hell," Ron muttered under his breath as they tramped downstairs, "What on earth have I got myself into..."

-----  
  
Well, that's the end of that chapter. I'm writing this up, but I'm only posting it after I've finished with my Home and Away fic, so I'd better go and do some of that or this'll never get posted. Or maybe... maybe I could take that off the net, and put this up first instead! Oh, I am abound with good ideas...


	5. Extraction

I'm a very bad girl... I've been neglecting my reviewers... I'll start now and if I miss a chapter... you must hang me!

Ash night: Hey, just cos I wrote it doesn't mean I own it! I would love to unleash one on my school. It'd be very very fun. Your mum would call 911? Hmmm... well when I was late home one night cos I had netball practise (I was only an hour or so late) dad was like taking the car out looking for me! And I'd told him multiple times I'd be late... Ah, he likes the Southern cross nightly news too much to let a simple daughter get in the way.

Hye em yes: In a few of my previous years, I have been known to make the characters extremely OOC...

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Harry Potter leant against the doorframe of his room, humming a tune he heard on the radio. It was a high, bouncy tune, easy to get stuck in your head. He didn't particularly like this song, but it was Dudley's favourite, so whenever it came on the radio Dudley turned it up to the highest volume.  
  
Harry was anxious to go to Hogwarts this year, partly because it was NEWT year, and partly because it was his last year at Hogwarts. What would happen after that? He couldn't bear to go back and live with the Dursleys. He assumed he'd get a job somewhere, but the only thing he could think of to be was an Auror. Then again, there was always professional Quidditch. He doubted he could get a job as an Auror this young. He was only seventeen.  
  
His birthday had passed without mention from the Dursleys, but Hermione had sent him a large box of chocolate frogs, and Ron had sent him a small, working snitch. He had had fun letting the snitch go then catching it a second later, but stopped quickly when he realised his father had done the exact same thing before bullying Snape. Hagrid had sent a large ball of white fluff that quivered whenever there was rain coming, and Mrs. Weasley sent two homemade apple cakes. He had finished them both in a matter of days, (they were delicious) and had a lot of fun scaring Dudley with the shuddering fluffball. Now, whenever Dudley saw the white weather seer, he tried to subtly move into the next room.  
  
Harry was jerked out of his train of thought by a crash coming from the living room, then screams. 'Oh no...' Harry thought, 'they don't know about the Weasleys coming...'  
  
"BOY!" Came Vernon Dursley's bellow from the other room. "GET IN HERE!"  
  
Harry raced through the door and saw Arthur Weasley's grinning face, brushing soot off himself. Also there was Ron and Ginny.  
  
"Hullo, Harry!" Mr. Weasley said.  
  
"Hi, Mr. Weasley," Harry said. "I'll, er, just go and get my stuff."  
  
"Oh, no you won't!" Vernon Dursley said. "You'll stay here and explain why these crackpots have just flown into my fireplace!"  
  
Harry pretended to remember something important, slapping himself on the forehead. "Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot to tell you... I'm staying at Ron's for the summer." Then he raced upstairs before Vernon could say anything to contradict him.  
  
"Ah, I see you've gone and got yourself a new _tillavickson_, Mr. Dursley," Arthur said friendlily, indicating a silvery television mounted in an entertainment system cabinet. "I learnt all about those things last month. Apparently they're very interesting."  
  
He cocked his head, presumably to see what was so interesting about a big silver box, but Vernon cleared his throat loudly and he straightened up again quickly.  
  
"Er..." Vernon said, clearly at a loss for what to say. "You, er, come here often?"  
  
"Well, I'm assuming you mean this neck of the woods, as I've only been in this house once before... yes, yes, but no, I'm usually only at my house and the Ministry of Magic, where I work... though sometimes I'm called out to see to a matter of my job..."  
  
He trailed off, realising that Vernon wasn't really after an answer longer than one word. He nodded slowly. Harry came back into the room, lugging a large trunk behind him. Arthur clapped his hands together, grinning again.  
  
"Ah! Well, let's, er, be off then!" He said, flinging some powder into the fireplace from a pouch he had in his pocket. The fire turned emerald and flared up, and he sent Ron off with Harry's trunk, shouting "The Burrow!" Ginny went next, followed by Harry.  
  
"Bye then!" Arthur said cheerfully to Vernon, who stayed silent, staring in terror at the green fire, before following Harry to The Burrow.  
  
They emerged in the living room of The Burrow, brushing soot from their fronts. Harry noticed that he was ankle deep in some kind of dry water, as he was standing in it but his feet were not wet.  
  
"What...'s this?" he asked as he hopped around as if he was on hot coals.  
  
"Fred and George's prank," Ron answered. "It all drained off except this bit... we're still waiting for it to go."  
  
Harry stopped hopping around and stood still, feeling slightly embarrassed to have been doing a kind of odd dance while the Weasleys stood there. He looked at Ginny. Her hair was curly... or had it always been like that? He couldn't really remember. She looked a lot better too... nah. Was it just his imagination, or was he starting to have non-platonic feelings for Ginny ?  
  
"Hello?" Ginny said, waving a hand past his eyes.  
  
"Oh, sorry, a million miles away." Harry said, snapping himself out of it. Ginny rolled her eyes and left. It had been her choice to go with Ron and her dad to collect Harry, but it was kind of boring. She had never been to Harry's house before, and wanted to know what a real muggle's house was like. It turned out it was quite like her own, but with more gadgets and things to do with electricity that she didn't know about. It was like being in Dumbledore's office, but the welcome had been much less warm. She hadn't seen the infamous Dudley, or Petunia, just a fat man with a moustache who she assumed to be Harry's uncle Vernon.  
  
She walked up the stairs to Ron's room, with Harry and Ron in tow. She pushed open the door and found Hermione sitting on his bed, laughing over a copy of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle. She recognised it as the one Hermione had snatched out of Ron's hands the other day.  
  
"This is so funny!" Hermione exclaimed. "Some of the things we think muggles do... extraordinary!"  
  
They sat on Ron's bed; Ron fascinated by Hermione's interest in his comic. Harry was still looking at Ginny strangely, and she was still wondering why.  
  
"You look really nice, Ginny. Have you, er, done something different to, er, your hair?" He said, eyes wide with curiosity.  
  
"Yeah, I noticed it too, Gin." Hermione said. "You look fantastic."  
  
Ginny smiled and looked at her shoes. "Well, Zoe did some stuff, like, before we went out yesterday. I think she's curled my hair permanently."  
  
"Wha...?" said Ron, who had not noticed a thing.  
  
"Oh, never mind , Ron." Hermione said exasperatedly. "Boys... they live with you your entire life and don't notice, eh Gin?"  
  
Ginny smiled. At least Harry noticed. 'He thinks I look really nice...' She thought, grinning to herself. Not that she liked him anymore. No way. Not even a little bit. She got over him loooooooooong ago. And that was LOOOOOOOOOOOONG ago. It was just nice to be appreciated.


	6. Dreaming of you

This is my favourite chapter yet... I got the idea for Ginny to have a dream... then it kind of morphed into a really strange dream, one that I might have had sometime... I dunno. I'm in a trippy mood.

-----  
  
Finally, the night before they went back to school came. Ginny was spellotaping a Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six that Ron had had the year before, and managed to tear the cover off. Ron was warming his toes by the fireplace, with a mug of steaming hot cocoa in his hands. Hermione was reading her Ancient Runes book, trying to memorise all of the strange symbols. Harry was playing with the snitch that Ron had given him for his birthday.  
  
Mrs. Weasley was over at their grandfather clock, which showed where all the members of the family were, prying off the cover. She had been so angry with Percy when he left that she actually removed his name from that clock, but now she was trying to fix it back on.  
  
"Get dad to do it," Ron said lazily. "You're never going to get that done yourself."  
  
And he proved his point when the glass shattered, sending shards of it into Mrs. Weasley's hands. Mr. Weasley rushed over and repaired the glass with a flick of his wand, and dragged Mrs. Weasley to the kitchen, muttering about women and machinery, sounding very much like the man from Titanic.  
  
The sound of the tap running echoed through the silent house as the fire crackled merrily behind the grate. Ginny stretched and stood up, flinging the book haphazardly onto the couch.  
  
"I'm going to bed," She announced. "Because I can."  
  
"Hey, no one said you couldn't, mate." Ron murmured, as she scampered upstairs. She quickly changed into blue pyjamas and crawled into her bed, covering herself up with her heavy doona. She closed her eyes...  
  
She wasn't in her room anymore. She was in the room of requirement, after a DA meeting of her fourth year. As they had finally got a teacher who wasn't afraid to let them practice defence in her fifth year, the DA had disbanded.  
  
Harry was there, and he was speaking to her, though her hearing was blurred, as if she was underwater. She tried to focus her hearing and realised what he was trying to say.  
  
"Ginny... I think you look really nice..." He murmured, barely audible. She moved closer, all the better to hear. "Ginny..."  
  
He was drifting away. No, she couldn't let him drift away... she caught hold of his wrist, and he drifted forwards, towards her. He could stop now... no, he was coming too close... stop... he put one hand on each of her cheeks and pulled her close to him. Her head rested against his chest and she put her arms around his neck. She felt warm in his arms, almost... safe. He put a hand under her chin and lifted her head up. She levitated a few inches, until they were almost nose to nose. She could feel his breath against her lips. A single tear fell from his eye, forming ice when it fell from his chin onto the ground. It went straight through the ground, making an ear- piercing ping where it hit. As if in some kind of vacuum, the floor crumbled and was sucked into the place where the tear of ice made contact with the ground, but they remained where they were, the room of requirement shuddering all around them.  
  
"You look really nice." Harry breathed. Then he was kissing her, she wasn't expecting this... she moved her hands down his back and closed her eyes. They tumbled mid-air, the vacuum of the floor finally getting to them. Ginny opened her eyes as he pulled away and realised it was not Harry she was kissing... it was Draco...  
  
"Why are you here, you don't do DA lessons," She muttered as they were sucked through the floor, landing in Dumbledore's office. Ginny straightened her robes self-consciously and stared Dumbledore straight in the eye. Could he see through the ceiling and know what she had been up to? Kissing two boys? But when Dumbledore spoke, it was in Hermione's voice...  
  
"Griffin... head crowned in flame... Malfoy name... Hogwarts united..."  
  
"What?" Ginny and Draco said together.  
  
"That is The Dragin Prophecy."  
  
"Ginny, we have to go to school." Draco said, in Harry's voice, now staring at her. Ginny shrieked as Draco's eyes turned red and rolled back in his head... all she could see was the whites...  
  
She shot up in bed, drenched in icy cold sweat.  
  
"Stop screaming you crazy freak!" Fred said playfully, pinging her in the centre of the forehead. "You have to go to school. Mum and Dad are leaving in twenty minutes, with or without you."  
  
Ginny knew that her parents would never leave without her, but she quickly jumped out of bed and threw on some muggle clothes haphazardly, brushing her teeth and pushing Ron aside to spit in the basin.  
  
"OW!" Ron yelled as he hit the wall, unknowing of Ginny's strength. "Whatchadothatfor?"  
  
"We have to go," Ginny said as she ran down the stairs, dragging her trunk after her. Ron, however, decided to get her back for the bathroom incident and leapt from the upper landing onto Ginny's back. Ginny, not expecting this, screamed and fell down the remainder of the stairs, Ron riding her trunk like a surfboard down to her. She shrieked and rolled aside just as the heavy trunk hit the floor where she had just been.  
  
"I could have died , Ron!" She yelled, yanking her trunk up, jamming her shoulder, and dropping it again, only to land on her toes. "Is this morning all about pain? Is this some kind of punishment for dreaming about... Harry!" She squealed as she saw Harry drag his trunk down the stairs, with not as much urgency as Ginny had. Ginny's eyes widened as she saw how much effect the dream had on her... she now had the urge to run into Harry's arms, to tell him not to turn into Draco next time she decided to kiss him... she tore her eyes away from him and ran out the door.  
  
This happened every time she lay eyes on him, so she decided to just not look at him.  
  
They boarded the Hogwarts express with only minutes to spare. No sooner had Mrs. Weasley hastily handed them sandwiches through the open train window, the horn blasted and they were off. Zoe, of course, was there with Charlie to see them off, Ginny waved exuberantly to her as they became tiny specks on the horizon.  
  
"What's that you were saying about a dream this morning, Gin?" Hermione said to her.  
  
"Ah, nothing." Ginny said, looking at her black faded sneakers.  
  
"You're not good at lying, Gin. Spill."  
  
Ginny sighed, and beckoned Hermione to the next carriage, and relayed the dream to her, conveniently leaving out the part where she opened her eyes and found out it was Draco.  
  
"So... do you think you have a crush on Harry?"  
  
"No!" Ginny said. She didn't... right? "Of course not... They walked back to the main carriage in silence. When they arrived, they saw three all-too- familiar figures in the doorway. Crabbe, Goyle, and... Ginny's heart lurched... Draco.   
  
"What are you doing here?" Hermione spat at him. "Surely you have a first-year to terrorise?"  
  
"That gets boring after a while, I thought I'd find a mudblood to terrorise..." Draco said, eyeing Hermione.  
  
"Shutup, Malfoy." Ron said warningly.  
  
"Or, you know, I could just find someone really poor to terrorise... I don't mind. Form a queue, people! First in line gets my new insult!" Malfoy said like some kind of circus manager.  
  
"What's that, the one you've spent all summer thinking up?" Ginny said, anger taking over her bashfulness at the memory f her dream.  
  
"What's it to you, Weaslette?" Malfoy said. "Here's a funny for ya... What will The Dark Lord kill first, with a disfigured forehead and covered in red hair? This train carriage!"  
  
Bang. No-one really knew who struck first, but a second later, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were on the floor, all having been hit with the bat-bogey curse.  
  
"Thought I'd give Malfoy a bit of nostalgia, remembering what Ginny did at the end of our fifth year," Harry said, kicking the unconscious form of Draco Malfoy into the hallway.  
  
"Same idea I had, mate.' Ron said, storing his wand in his pocket.  
  
"Me too." Ginny said.  
  
The train pulled up at Hogsmeade station, and they got off, all full of anxiety at the year ahead. But for Ginny, the year was going to be very interesting... very interesting indeed.


	7. Devil in disguise

Reviews:  
  
Ash Night: Chuh... I FORGIVE you... maybe... Haha just kiddin. Not just kiddin about the forgiving part, j/k about the being high-and-mighty part. Ya KNOW? You seriously can't tell the difference between a screen and a page? Heheheee... Sorry, have to laugh. And Draco will be coming soon. Sooner that you think... Haha I actually haven't thought that far ahead.  
  
Dark Angels: Thanks, I have some VERY trippy dreams sometimes. My logic goes spazmo in dreams, I'm guessing it does for everyone? So that's why Ginny didn't say to Draco 'How did you morph from Harry into you' she said 'You don't do DA, why are you here.' Heheheee...  
  
Ash Night again: Oh, forgive me. Ok, we're even now. That's funny about the shovel, my sister hit me over the head with a shovel a few years ago. I don't have brain damage or anything... I think... It was a full on metal shovel too, really quite heavy.  
  
SiLvErStInG04: I haven't updated in quite a while... But it's school holidays now so I'll try to write more. Thanks for the review, made my day. Actually, I think I was having a bit of a crappy day, so pretty much anything could have made my day, but still. I guess it contributed.  
  
And a big-arsed Hey Ya to PK! (Not the gum.)  
  
This is a longer chapter than normal...  
  
-----  
  
Nothing happened when they got to school. They all just led their lives, happy as a chappy, Ginny forgot her dream, Voldemort started seeing a psychiatrist, (SEE 'Voldemort Sees a Psychiatrist' coming soon to Amerikus' user lookup) converted to Buddhism and realised that hunger to murder Harry was just symbolic of his angst at having no children, Harry and Ginny got together, as did Draco and Luna, and Ron and Hermione. Everything was fine. I'm being serious. I shit you not, mate.  
  
Well, not perfectly serious. Actually, none of the above things happened. Well, not in the near future, anyway.  
  
Ahem. Back to "The Dragin Prophecy".  
  
The foursome entered the great hall, not expecting anything but a great, if not difficult, year ahead. Ginny was not on her OWL, or NEWT year, but she was still extremely apprehensive about NEWTS in her final year. She had just scraped in seven OWLS, and her mother was pleased with her, as only mothers can be.  
  
They sat down and glared hungrily at the golden plates before them. They had missed the food trolley on the train due to Malfoy's disturbance, and were starving.  
  
"Oh, can't they just divide all the first years up and put them in to random houses this year..." Ron murmured, prodding at his plate, as if that would make the food appear.  
  
"Now, Ron, you know that's not how it works." Hermione scolded.  
  
Ron murmured coarse words under his breath, more to his plate than to Hermione, but Hermione cuffed him over the back of the head all the same, making him hit his head on the hard wooden table. "Ow!" He yelled, causing a great many chattering people to halt abruptly and stare at him. He slid embarrassedly underneath the table until only the tips of his red hair were visible. He brightened when Professor McGonagall placed the sorting stool on a raised platform and started calling out names.  
  
"Bremner, Emily!"  
  
A short, slim girl with short strawberry-blonde hair and freckles jumped eagerly on the stool, letting the hat fall over her small head, covering her eyes. It was a few minutes before the hat made its decision...  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
Emily ran off happily to her assigned table as "Cecile, Brendan" was sorted into Hufflepuff.  
  
"Why are there so many of them?" Ron whinged. "I'm dying here!"  
  
"Ron!" Hermione hissed. "The sorting ceremony's been around for hundreds upon hundreds of years! We can't cancel it just because of some seventh- year's stomach!"  
  
Behind Hermione's back, Ron scowled. He made quite a few faces, too, until Hermione turned around to flick a piece of lint off her shoulder and almost caught him. He was so hungry... if only there were some actual food on these plates...  
  
The sorting finished with "Werner, Rose" being sorted into Slytherin, and Ron perked up instantly when the whiff of roasted chickens and mashed potatoes reached his nostrils.  
  
"Mmmm..." he said, stuffing grilled tomatoes into his mouth whole. "Sumfin spesol bout foo ack Hogwas," He said with his mouth full. "Dey ha _ni'_ diffre kin's of potayo!"  
  
"Again, in English, my prehistoric pal?" Hermione said disgustedly.  
  
"I said..." Ron said, swallowing massively, then forgetting he was supposed to talk with a clear mouth and took a great chunk out of a chicken drumstick, "Goo foo ack Hogwas."  
  
Hermione sighed, giving up, and returned to her carrots, muttering about people never growing out of the age of three. Ron shrugged off Hermione's criticism and turned to face the table, all the better to devote more attention to his food. He grinned at the ever-reloading plates, and blocked out all other senses except for the one that primarily took control of his life: taste.  
  
Harry sighed, glancing at Ron's bulging cheeks. He looked like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter. Finally, when the last crumb had disappeared from the last golden platter, Dumbledore stood up, smiling warmly.  
  
"Welcome, welcome to a new year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. May I remind you that no student is to ever enter the Forbidden Forest unaccompanied by a teacher or other staff member. Mr. Filch has added Blood-sucking quills to the list of objects not allowed in the corridors, accessible at any time in his office. Welcome particularly first- years, and I hope you enjoy your time at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, our last Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Ardent, is in India trying to find himself after falling victim to a badly cast self-help spell. But it is on a happier note that I introduce our new Defence teacher, Professor Bromidum."  
  
There was light applause, the crickets chirping outside the hall and the full stomachs of the students adding to the sleepy feel of most.  
  
"I know you are all anxious to get a good night's sleep so your brains are all rested for tomorrow's learning," He went on, "But I do have one more announcement. Due to the success of the Yule ball two years ago, and the New Year's ball last year, after much deliberation, Hogwarts will be holding a Halloween ball this year. It is open to fourth years and above, as were the previous two, but a fourth year or above may wish to bring a person from the lower grades. It is masquerade, meaning some kind of mask or other identity concealer must be worn. That is all, good night."  
  
Despite the sleepy feel of the hall, talk broke out as they left towards their respective towers. Ginny thought she saw Draco, buffeted around by the throng, but a second later she was sure she had been mistaken, for all that stood in front of her was the back of Harry's head.  
  
-----  
  
Ginny's friend Lauren was extremely excited about the upcoming ball... so excited, that when it reached the two-weeks-to-go line she was in hysterics and had to be ushered out of Transfiguration. She did look very pretty in her outfit – she was wearing an army print bikini top, with a khaki coloured jacket, khaki coloured pants which tucked into her heavy black boots, and her hair was out and tousled. She wore a mask of white, with a large butterfly pattern up the top, each wing covering one of her eyes. Ginny wanted to be unique; something no one else would do, so she wouldn't be confused with anyone else. Next to the ever-popular Lauren, Ginny felt like an unsavoury bag lady in her charmed-blue skin, hair transfigured to be longer, and long green dress – she was going as the King of Neptune's bride, complete with trident. She entered with Lauren, about ten minutes too late, so everyone was already on the dance floor, buzzing away to Celestina Warbeck live.  
  
Celestina was a pretty young witch, too young to have even graduated school. She only looked about sixteen. Despite her youth, she had an amazing voice, deep and soulful. She caught Ginny's eye and smiled. Ginny half-grinned back, tearing her eyes away to see if she could find anyone else she knew. She saw her sixth year friends, but, on a whim, decided against joining them. She instead made her way over to a table with one spare seat – there were three people already sitting there. They exchanged pleasantries, before an outburst from the guy in the king's costume.  
  
"Ginny?"  
  
Ginny blanched. Was her mask that transparent? "Don't go screaming it around. Can you really tell it's me?"  
  
"Only because I've lived with you for about sixteen years!"  
  
"Ron?"  
  
"Nuh, I'm that other guy who's been living with you all your life," He joked. "Your skin looks like you should be in St. Mungo's."  
  
Ginny looked at the other two people sitting at the table. There was a girl across the table wearing a long white dress and wings, with a golden halo suspended above her head. That would have taken some tricky spellwork to get it to follow her around, so Ginny assumed that was Hermione. The other person on the table was wearing tattered, dirty clothes with a mangled mask on – probably Harry dressed as a zombie. Ron left to get some bottles of butterbeer, leaving Ginny alone with an angel and a zombie.  
  
"Great costume." She said. Both Harry and Hermione thought she was talking to the other one, so they stayed silent. Ron returned with the butterbeer, and stared at the mass of people moving rhythmically to the tunes of the witch on stage.  
  
"Tossers." Harry said.  
  
"Why would anyone want to do that." Hermione said.  
  
"If I started dancing I think everyone else would run away screaming." Ron said, grinning.  
  
"May I have this dance?" a stranger said, holding his hand out to Ginny. She took the proffered hand and allowed herself to be led away, giving the thumbs-up to her older brother. Almost as if on cue, Celestina changed songs to a slower one, and, almost as if by some unknown force, the dancers in the centre of the hall moved closer together. The stranger pulled Ginny close to him, and for the first time, she noticed his costume. Black pants with a red, pointy tail coming out of the back. A tight red t-shirt, showing off a toned midriff. Horns, and a dark red mask. Devil in disguise, Ginny mused.  
  
She looked over to her brother's table and saw Ron carefully examining the trident she had left there. The stranger gently turned her face back to him, presumably miffed about not getting her full attention.  
  
"What say we blow this place." He said, with a slightly familiar voice. Ginny, so intoxicated by the mood of the place, and the music pumping through her veins, allowed herself to be led outside by this stranger. When he was satisfied they were far enough away from the great hall; he turned to face her.  
  
"You're a good dancer." He said.  
  
"You too." Ginny replied, unsure of what to say in this situation. Suddenly, the stranger had an outburst.  
  
"I hate this ball!" He said in that oddly familiar voice. "I mean, it's good, because you can connect with the people you like, without them knowing it's you..." Ginny smiled under her blue mask. "But you can't even tell who the people you like are..."  
  
"Why don't we take off our masks, just for a second?" Ginny suggested. "No- one would know."  
  
The stranger seemed to agree, and lifted his hands to his face. Before he could even touch his mask, a siren sounded, Celestina stopped singing and Dumbledore's voice rang out from inside the hall.  
  
"_Now, I know everyone's having a **smashing** time, but I must ask you all to just listen to me for a second, and for all the people in the grounds – don't think I don't know you're there – to come inside. The removal of the masks is about to begin_."  
  
Ginny and the stranger looked at each other, before going into the hall. It seemed that Ginny would find out who this charmer was soon enough. 


	8. Bedtime

Ash night: Hope you had fun shopping. And come on, would I write the devil as anyone but him? I wouldn't screw up the storyline like that.  
  
Lilshorty69: I think you meant for you to keep reviewing, not me =)  
  
Dark Angels: The psychiatrist one will be in a series called the From a Hat series. You may have noticed the starter, Pairings from a Hat, Snape/Millicent, maybe I'll be quick and post chapter two, Harry/Hedwig...  
  
-----  
  
"It is time to remove your masks!" Dumbledore repeated, looking jolly as he pulled off his rooster mask. The devil stranger was nowhere to be seen. Ginny had entered just a second after him... where was he? She edged over to Ron, Harry and Hermione, still straining her eyes in the hope of developing x-ray vision to see through the throng, and find out who the devil was. She took off her mask and hoped to god the stranger would make himself visible. It made her blood boil, that he would know who she was but she wouldn't know about him. Ron clapped a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Ah, I'm sure that devil will turn up," He muttered. Ginny smiled. She had always expected her older brother to be overbearing and vicious when it came to boys, but he was surprisingly friendly. Ginny supposed Hermione must have talked to him, warned him about saying anything to restrict Ginny from a social life. She silently thanked Hermione for it, allowing herself to be led from the room by her brother, craning her neck to see a glimpse of the stranger.  
  
She entered her dorm with Lauren, who would not stop going on about a seventh year she had danced with.  
  
"It's so great, you know, older men," She had said. "They're so much more mature..."  
  
Ginny gave her a look behind her back. One night of dancing with a boy who was barely a year older than she was, and she thought she was all that. Ginny hated people like that, and resisted the urge to use magic to conjure up a group of slimy toads to lay in wait under the covers of her bedclothes. She watched as Lauren stretched pompously and closed the bathroom door with her pyjamas, to get changed for bed.  
  
"I'm so tired from all that dancing with that seventh year..." She said. "I wouldn't be surprised if I fell straight to sleep... to tell you the truth, I wouldn't be surprised if he asks me out tomorrow."  
  
"How will he know who you are?"  
  
"The mask removing, dur Gin! Seriously, sometimes I think I'm the looks and the brains in this twosome!"  
  
"Then you'd know who he is?" Ginny said, feeling hot rage gather in her throat, her hand twitching from the effort of stopping herself casting that toad spell.  
  
"No... I couldn't see his face, he was turned away from me."  
  
"I would be too, stop myself from seeing your disgusting face." Ginny muttered, not caring whether it was true or not, she needed to release anger, badly.  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"I said that's a shame."  
  
"Yeah, it was." Lauren said, exiting the bathroom and letting Ginny go in. "He was a great dancer, too. I mean, the tail got in the way, but he was good."  
  
Ginny's hands faltered on her dress. Lauren had been dancing with her stranger? Of course. When he was talking about looking for the person he liked, he had meant Lauren. How could she be so conceited to think that any tall, dark and handsome stranger with an annoyingly familiar voice could be interested in her?  
  
"You danced with the devil?"  
  
"Devil? No, he was dressed as a lion. A bit too fuzzy, but I could stand it."  
  
Ginny breathed a sigh of relief. Still, that didn't mean that the devil-boy liked her, but at least he didn't like Lauren. All boys liked about her were her looks. And didn't she just know it. Every day she pointed out to people how toned her stomach was, how shiny her hair was, and how long her legs were. It made Ginny physically ill. (A/N: I actually know a guy like this. He is worse though. Much, much worse.)  
  
"So, I saw you dancing with a devil," Lauren said through the door. Ginny exited and pulled her bedclothes over her shoulders. "Who was that?"  
  
"I don't know, I couldn't see him at the removal."  
  
"Oh well. He could probably see you. He'll be in love with you by tomorrow."  
  
In the dark, Ginny smiled. For all Lauren's ego, she was a really nice girl.  
  
-----  
  
Draco Malfoy entered his common room and gave the thumbs up to Crabbe and Goyle, who stayed back due to flu.  
  
"Dance with anyone good?" Crabbe said.  
  
"Mmm." Draco said. "This girl. Good figure. Didn't see her once she'd taken off the mask, though."  
  
"Bummer..." Goyle said, walking up the stairs to the dormitory, Draco and Crabbe following closely behind. They changed for bed silently, taking it in turns to use the bathroom. Draco exited the bathroom in his pyjamas, and jumped onto his bed, not bothering with covers. He closed his eyes, but felt something digging into his back. He pulled out a headband with two red horns attached, and threw it absently into the corner. 


	9. Manly Goddesses

It's been so long since I updated. I should be put in front of the firing squad and shot.  
  
But that would just be stupid. This isn't exactly my favourite chapter to write, so it'll be short. The next one should be up very soon, though. I intended this chapter to be funny, but don't shoot me if it's not.  
  
-----  
  
Ginny awoke the next morning feeling refreshed, if not extremely curious as to the identity of the devil. She knew it was stupid, to be crushing on someone she didn't know the name of, but she felt it inside of her, like a burning she needed to quench with information. The light coming through the window made an orange diamond on her crumpled sheets, so she walked over to shut the curtain, all too conscious of the chilly tiles under her feet. Lauren stirred and opened her eyes.  
  
"S'morning yet?" She asked no one in particular. "Wanna... ask around. Find out who that seventh-year was."  
  
_Or course._ Ginny's heart nearly leapt at the possibilities. What stopped her from asking around? She didn't have particularly high hopes, though. The devil could be a strange murdering stalker, though. But her curiosity got the better of her, and so she dressed quickly and went down to the great hall. Sitting down next to Ron, she poured out a bowl of cereal and watched the milk jug lift from the table and pour itself into her bowl.  
  
"Magic's made us lazy." She observed. "You wouldn't be able to survive one week without it, Ron."  
  
"Yes, I would!" Ron said, putting his spoon down and waiting patiently for his bowl to sink down through the table to the kitchens below. Ginny laughed, and propositioned him.  
  
"Ok. One week. No magic to do stuff for you, except maybe in classes. You get up early, go down to the kitchens and make your own breakfast. Make your own food. No brooms. And house-elves are against the rules, too."  
  
Ron mulled it over. "If I win?"  
  
"I'll do whatever you want, for a month."  
  
"If I lose?"  
  
"You have to streak the next Quidditch match."  
  
Ron hesitated, closing his eyes. On a split second decision, he agreed, and shook Ginny's hand. "One week."  
  
"Starting now."  
  
Ron grimaced at the thought of losing magic for a week, then brightened. "I can make you do all sorts of funny stuff, Gin..."  
  
"If you win, that is."  
  
"Which I will!"  
  
"What makes you so sure?"  
  
"My inner goddess."  
  
"You mean god."  
  
"That's what I said."  
  
"No, you said goddess."  
  
"Why on earth would I say goddess?"  
  
"Cos you're just a big woman's blouse."  
  
"Am so not! I rock it up there with all the manly people!"  
  
"Like...?"  
  
Ron hesitated. "I am not going to dignify that with a response! I'm leaving, and I'm taking my manly friends with me!"  
  
He turned, and he furrowed his eyebrows as he realised that Hermione was sitting next to him, not Harry.  
  
"Manly!" He grunted, and Hermione spat out her pumpkin juice.  
  
"What did you just call me?" She shrieked.  
  
"_Manly!_" He repeated. Hermione's face contorted in an expression of unbridled fury, and she stood up and icily poured her chilly drink onto Ron's pants. He cringed, then ran out of the hall, making funny squeaking noises.  
  
"Good one, Mione." Ginny said. "Couldn't have done it better myself. Oh, were you anywhere near a devil last night at the ball?"  
  
"Yeah, why?"  
  
"Who was it?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I just want to know."  
  
"Did you dance with him?"  
  
"Durrrrrr."  
  
"Alright, the one in the devil's costume was Malfoy."  
  
"_WHAT?_"  
  
"You heard me."  
  
"Oh god." Ginny said. At that moment, someone tapped Ginny on the shoulder, and she span around to come nose to nose with none other than Draco. _Say something witty and cool_, Ginny thought to herself, but words wouldn't come. "Irk!" She squeaked. Then she got her bearings, and formulated a coherent sentence. "What are you doing?"  
  
"Dumbledore wants to see us in his office." He said. "Oh, and by the way... _irk_."  
  
Ginny turned a dark beetroot colour and followed Draco out of the great hall. 


	10. Prophecy

Argh, disclaimer. JKR is the only one who owns Harry Potter. I'm not JKR. You do the math.  
  
I don't think Ashleigh Todd is a real person. Is she? And I just made up that movie, by the way.  
  
Since my other fic, The Greatest Literary Work of the Century, was deleted for being too short, (bloody FFNers), I'll reply to reviews here, if you're reading.  
  
TheDarkLadyOfRavenclaw: What a long name you have! Yeah, I was just testing the FFNers to see what they'd do. It was pretty funny though.  
  
Anical06: Wow, that review was a good piece of literature! Very long and detailed.  
  
Reviews:  
  
Jamie: That is quite a lot of smileys! Glad you like it!  
  
Dark Angels: Thank you! I do try.  
  
Dark Zelda: I'll continue, I still have like, another fifteen chapters or so to go.  
  
SodaPopC: Well, Ginny knows now, and I think I'll get Draco to find out soon... awel.  
  
TarynMalfoy88: YAY! Huzzah.  
  
-----  
  
Dumbledore looked at Ginny and Draco with tired eyes. On his desk there was a glass orb filled with smoke, and Ginny recognised it as a prophecy like the ones from the Department of Mysteries.  
  
"I don't quite know how to tell you this, Miss Weasley, Mr Malfoy... maybe this prophecy can do a better job."  
  
He picked up the orb, and threw it against the ground, where it shattered. Draco and Ginny winced. A smoky form came out of the broken glass, and started talking.  
  
"_Girl of the Griffin, head crowned in flame, Boy of the Serpent, bearing the Malfoy name, the spawn of the pair, a Hogwarts laster, to unite the houses, under one master_."  
  
"_Wha...?_" Ginny murmured, as the form faded away.  
  
"_What the...?_" Draco said. Both teenagers were frozen to their seats. Dumbledore sat back down.  
  
"Professor Trelawney approached me just yesterday... do you know what that prophecy means?"  
  
"No, sir." Ginny responded, and Draco shook his head.  
  
"There will be an even greater evil than Voldemort, and to combat that, we need to unite the houses." Dumbledore muttered.  
  
"Yeah, under one master. But why are we here?" Draco said.  
  
"Girl of the Griffin – a girl from Gryffindor. Head crowned in flame – guess what colour fire is? I immediately thought of you, Miss Weasley. And Boy of the Serpent – Slytherin, bearing the Malfoy name – that doesn't really leave much to the imagination, does it?"  
  
"So... what you're saying is... that we have to make a spawn and that will unite Hogwarts." Ginny said slowly.  
  
"I'm not doing any spawning with a _Weasley_." Draco said, looking terrified.  
  
"And I won't be doing any spawning with a Malfoy."  
  
"I'm sorry, but that's what the prophecy said. I have arranged a marriage –"  
  
"Whoa, I can spawn if I'm forced into it, but I'm not marrying that." Draco said, pointing at Ginny.  
  
"I might spawn if you're lucky, but I'm seriously against marriage."  
  
"Sorry, I don't make the rules, I just enforce them." Dumbledore said, looking sheepish. "There's a chapel in the school – we will use that. Two weeks from now. Please."  
  
Draco rolled his eyes and Ginny looked as if she might vomit at any time, but they left without a word.  
  
-----  
  
"Hey girl, what's happenin'?" Lauren said, as Ginny entered the room. Ginny blanched at the strange use of words from Lauren, before she actually saw her, decked out in a tie die tank top, denim vest, bell-bottom pants, and a green cotton scarf tied around her neck.  
  
"What's with the get-up?" Ginny asked, looking at badges on Lauren's vest that said things like "_Women against nuclear explosives_" and "_A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle_".  
  
"It's my totally groovy outfit! I found this old chest of clothes and I just had to try them on!" She said, pulling a gold chain around her waist and putting on rose pink granny glasses. "What's wrong, babes?"  
  
"I have to get married."  
  
"Ooh, like those Muslim religions? Who to?"  
  
"Nothing like Muslims or anything. It's for a prophecy."  
  
"Who to?"  
  
"Draco Malfoy."  
  
"Get _out_."  
  
"Seriously."  
  
"Shut _up_!"  
  
"Quit with the Americanisms, Lauren. I'm feeling bad enough."  
  
"Sorry. Do we get to go dress-shopping?"  
  
"I suppose so."  
  
Lauren looked happier about this than Ginny.  
  
"Cheer up Charlie!" Lauren said in a singsong voice. "_You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey! You'll never know dear how much I love you, so please don't take my sunshine away!_"  
  
Ginny half-laughed and chucked a pillow at Lauren, who was now twirling around the room like a ballerina gone wrong.  
  
"She laughs! It's a miracle!" Lauren said, falling to her knees and bringing her arms down to the ground. Ginny threw another pillow at her. This time, it hit her in the head, and Lauren stopped trying to cheer Ginny up. "When do we go shopping?"  
  
"Dunno. What about now?"  
  
"But it's not a Hogsmeade weekend –"  
  
"Next one's probably not for ages. No one will mind. But let's take a secret passage, just to be sure."  
  
-----  
  
They emerged from Honeydukes giggling like twelve-year-olds.  
  
"Where to from here?" Ginny asked, all the pressure on her shoulders lifted for this short period.  
  
"A dress shop, silly!" Lauren said. "Have you got cash for a dress?"  
  
Ginny's stomach felt like it was filled with lead, and she froze, watching Lauren's smile fade. An owl swooped overhead, and dropped a package on the ground in front of her, before flying off. Ginny opened it, and it had a small rectangle of plastic in it, as well as a note. She read the note first.  
  
_Ginny, I assume you are going to need a dress. Please exit Diagon Alley via the Leaky Cauldron, turn left, and keep walking until you see a shop with mannequins dressed in white. Pick out a dress and when they ask you to pay, give them this piece of plastic. It is called a 'credit card'. I have no clue as to how it works, but it works. They put it in a machine, or something. I borrowed this off Alastor Moody. I hope he doesn't mind. Please be back at the castle before seven.  
  
Dumbledore.  
_  
Ginny laughed at how Dumbledore could have known she was roaming around Hogsmeade. Lauren was turning over the credit card, amazed at it. Ginny thought it looked familiar, somehow.  
  
"This is undoubtedly the strangest thing I have ever seen." Lauren said, poking it with her wand.  
  
"Don't damage it or anything, it's what we'll use to get my dress."  
  
"Wha...?"  
  
"Just trust me, ok?" She said, leading Lauren out of Diagon Alley.  
  
-----  
  
They arrived at the dress shop, and the sales assistant looked down on the two sixteen-year-olds, clearly thinking they were not here to buy.  
  
"Will you, ah, be making a purchase today, ladies?" She said tightly.  
  
"Yes." Ginny said firmly, and the sales assistant relaxed noticeably, pulling out various ugly dresses that Ginny would rather die than be seen in. "What about this one?" Ginny said, indicating a white silk strapless dress with the top folded down, and rhinestones set into the bodice. The sales assistant almost went into hysterics.  
  
"Of _course_! Of course you can buy this Vera Wang dress, worn by Ashleigh Todd in _Bride to Be_!" She screeched sarcastically. Ginny blanched, then grinned inwardly.  
  
"I want this dress."  
  
"I hardly think it's in your price range."  
  
"I don't have a price range, with daddy's plastic." Ginny said, jacking a few lines off a muggle movie she had once seen. Ah, she thought, that was where I remember credit cards from.  
  
She paid for the dress and Ginny and Lauren left the shop. This time it was Ginny's turn to be more excited than Lauren. Sure, she was still terrified about her marriage, but going dress shopping was definitely a good way to release stress. 


	11. Telling Her Parents

zuvalupa: Thank you! I try to make it interesting.

Dark Angels: It's been a while but I'm hoping this is soon enough.

Sunflour: Good suggestion but I've already got the wedding planned. Ron is going to be absolutely SPEWING when he finds out.

Rednight-rider: This is what happens next. =)=)

drk-ngel: When I type the a's in your name, they disappear! Oh well, forgive me. That chapter had nothing to do with ANYTHING, but it kind of set the mood., ya know what I mean?

daydreamgoddess: I might check it out when I get the time, but I barely have any time because of school.

Dark Zelda: She doesn't THINK she likes Draco, but she so does. She's just telling herself "Dumbledore knows best." But really she doesn't mind as much as Ron that she's marrying Draco, cos he IS the hottest guy in Hogwarts, even if he is an absolute prick!

Silwen Aurdomiel: Thank you! Everyone would want a tidal wave, they could swim without holding their breath or ANYTHING! I used the always eleven line because my sister reckons I'll always be twelve, even though I'm like, fifteen. You're the first person to pick up on that Dra-Gin Draco-Ginny thing. Or maybe everyone's picked up on it and just not said anything. Who knows. I just liked it cos it sounds like Dragon. I didn't mean to make Crabbe and Goyle intellegent, I just don't really think it makes sense that they speak in grunts but still get through Hogwarts. Dumbledore is DELIGHTFULLY ECCENTRIC, and I'm sure he'll get Moody to explain what it is when he finds out Dumbledore 'borrowed' his card.

* * *

Ginny looked up apprehensively at her house, a small overnight bag clutched in her hand. Dumbledore allowing her to return home for a few days to tell her parents the news in person was one thing. Actually going through with the telling of the news was another. Walking up to the door, she wondered at how this would look. Ginny arriving home early from school with a bag in her hand, a part terrified, part anxious, part queasy look on her face. She knocked three times on the mahogany door, and it Mrs Weasley opened it, flour in her hair and an apron on. Ginny caught a strong whiff of chocolate muffins being cooked and she almost smiled, before remembering the news.

"What on earth are you doing back here young lady? You haven't been expelled, have you? Oh gosh, I knew Fred and George were a handful, and Ron was always a troublemaker, but expulsion? What did you do? Who with? Is it a _boy_, Ginny? Were you expelled for a _boy_?"

Mrs. Weasley said this all extremely fast. Ginny stood there, half-smiling. She decided to let her mother blow off some steam.

"Boys! What are they good for? Face it Ginny, you're not going to find your one true love at sixteen. I mean, you need to experience everything while you still can, but I would have at least thought you'd have waited until you were married! Miss Weasley, do you know the dangers of pregnancy? You're sixteen, Ginny. How would you feel if your young son's friends all called you 'hot' and wanted to 'get you into bed'? But now would you have a problem with that? Oh, why did I give birth to a girl! Ginny, I think we need to have a talk. Sometimes, when two people love each other very much –"

Ginny tried not to laugh, but it was all too much, and she dropped her bag inside the foyer, and hugged her mother, laughing.

"One: I am not expelled. Two: I do not have a boyfriend. Three: I am sixteen, mum. I know what sex is. Four: Knowing full well what sex is, and that in fact, I did not come from the cabbage patch, I know better than to have sex with just anyone. Five: If my son's friends called me hot, I would be flattered, but I don't think I would break the law just for some hormonal teenager with a breaking voice. Six: I am not having sex. Seven: Repeat number six, ten thousand times."

Mrs Weasley looked confused, then brightened, and hugged her daughter back. "My little girl is growing up..." Ginny laughed, and Mrs. Weasley scurried off to the kitchen, returning with a large chocolate muffin. "Just for you! See the chocolate chips?"

Ginny looked down, and in tiny white chocolate chips, her name was spelled out. She wondered if this was a regular activity her mother indulged in, making muffins with her children's names on them, and decided that her mother defnintely needed a less creepy hobby. Ginny dragged her bag up to her room and flopped down onto the bed, thinking vaguely of telling her parents the news later, over dinner maybe.

She supposed she must have fallen asleep, because, next thing she knew, her mother was calling her for dinner. "Coming, mum." She called out, and rubbed her eyes wearily. But her sleepiness immediately dissipated when she caught a whiff of the dinner her mother had prepared.

"Since it's just the three of us, I thought I'd make something special." Mrs Weasley said, and Ginny realised that her mother still had no idea what Ginny was doing home, and was putting her on the guilt trip for information.

"Great mum, I have something to tell both of you." Ginny said. Sitting down at the table, she sniffed the food on her plate.

"Lemon chicken with rice, dear! New recipe. Now, what were you telling me about an explanation?"

Ginny took a mouthful of chicken, and, finding it delicious, resisted the urge to keep eating. She needed to explain. "Mum, dad, Dumbledore called me and Draco Malfoy up to his office the other day."

"Why?" Mrs Weasley asked, then her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I knew this was over a _boy_!"

"Mum, I was NOT expelled. Anyway, there's this prophecy, right? And it says that there's going to be a person who's even eviller than You-Know-Who. And the only way to stop that evil is for all four houses to unite. And the only way for that to happen is if a certain person unites them. That certain person is my child, fathered by Draco Malfoy. We're getting married in a week. I really want you to be there."

Mr and Mrs Weasley looked shocked. Mr Weasley held his fork up near his face, one grain of rice touching his lip. Mrs Weasley, on the other hand, dropped her fork, letting it clatter noisily on her plate. You could hear the crickets outside the window.

"Mum? Dad?' Ginny said. "Please say something."

"You have to get married." Mr Weasley said, resting his fork down onto his plate. "Ginny, do you know how evil that family is? They're right in with You-Know-Who. I'm worried."

"It's not my choice to make, dad." She muttered, then stood up, her chair scraping against the floor. "I've lost my appetite."

Walking up the stairs to her room, Ginny's stomach suddenly cramped violently and she ran to the bathroom, projectile-vomiting into the toilet. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up into her mother's eyes, glistening, but at the same time understanding. Ginny wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

"Mum." She murmured.

"Ginny." Her mother replied, flushing the toilet. She handed Ginny a glass of water and she drained it in one gulp. She sat down with her daughter on the cold bathroom tiles and said nothing. Ginny clutched her knees to her chest and rocked softly back and forth. With a pang of empathy, she realised that her youngest child was crying. Sweeping her into a two-armed hug, she stroked Ginny's hair, still silent. "Your father doesn't like this, sweetie."

"Neither do I." Ginny breathed, barely audible. "But what choice do I have."

"The Malfoys are not average wizards." Mrs Weasley said. "They are conniving, and evil. They will use anything against you."

"Don't tell me you share dad's feelings." Ginny asked, looking up into her mother's eyes.

"No, honey. I just want you to be careful around Draco."

Ginny stopped moving suddenly. "You used his first name."

"And I advise you to as well, if you will be married. I hardly go about calling Arthur 'Weasley' now, do I?"

"But you married for love." Ginny breathed. Mrs. Weasley only just caught the words coming from her daughter's mouth.

"That I cannot deny." Mrs Weasley said quietly. "I trust Dumbledore knows what he's doing."

"I never expected my wedding to be one where even the bride cries." Ginny breathed. Mrs Weasley blinked, and tears fell from her eyes this time. Seeing a daughter cry is the hardest thing for a mother, she thought as she continued stroking Ginny's flaming red curls.


	12. Telling His Parents

Draco Malfoy shuddered, looking up at his massive manor. What would he tell his parents? 'Hi mum, dad, guess what? I'm marrying a Weasley, just to stop an evil that we'll probably be backing up anyway!' He sighed and closed his eyes, and knocked on the mahogany door. It swung open by itself, and Draco entered, waving his hand. The door closed.

"Kellah!" He shouted, and a timid house-elf wearing an old pillowcase came running up to him.

"Yes, master?" She said, cringing at his disgusted glare.

"Fetch me my parents."

"Certainly, master."

It just so happens that Lucius Malfoy was doing "business" at that moment, so as soon as the poor house-elf entered the room, she was thrown bodily out, and told in no uncertain terms to wait until he had finished. She scurried back to Draco, bowing deeply in front of him.

"Your father says to wait until he has finished his business."

"Alright, tell him I've got a mudblood pregnant then. That ought to get him out of whatever business he's in."

He watched Kellah scurry away, then a few seconds later, heard a loud "WHAT?" and the unmistakable sound of his father stomping down the stairs.

"What's this I hear, boy!" Said Lucius, towering over Draco. "You will rue the day you even thought about a mudblood!"

"I haven't got a mudblood pregnant, father." Said Draco coolly. "I needed to speak to you and mother about a very important matter."

"Horus!" He bellowed, and another house-elf came running up. "Get Narcissa!"

The house-elf bowed deeply like Kellah did, and ran away in the blink of an eye.

* * *

"Like hell you're marrying a Weasley!" Lucius shouted, advancing upon Draco like a lion upon a gazelle. "We'll be the laughing stock of the country!"

"Either you put up with the marriage, or we die from a wizard even darker than The Dark Lord."

"I'm not having this marriage, son." Lucius said, his voice lowering to a dangerous whisper. "We'll back the dark wizard."

"And what makes you think he'll accept you?" Draco yelled. "If he's darker than Voldemort, he will not want scum like you working for him!"

"Don't say the name of your master." Lucius snapped. It seemed to Draco as if saying the name was worse than calling his father scum.

"He isn't _my_ master, dad." He said, halfway out the door. "_You_ chose him as your master. _I_ never wanted it."

Slam. The door was shut in his face, and he had no choice but to go back to Hogwarts.

* * *

VERY short chapter! I'm going to go and write the next one. Byedies!


End file.
